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Clashes erupt as envoy due to meet east Congo rebel

Heavy fighting erupted in eastern Congo on Sunday, hours before former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, a United Nations
peace envoy, was due to meet rebel leader Laurent Nkunda, the U.N. and
witnesses said.

It was not immediately clear who was
involved in the clashes. Artillery, rocket and small arms fire have been heard
since early morning near the village of Ndeko, about 110 km (70 miles) north of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, Reuters
reported.

Obasanjo is due to meet Nkunda later on
Sunday morning, some 60 km southeast of Ndeko, in his efforts to end weeks of
clashes between Nkunda's rebels and the army. The violence has sparked a
displaced 250,000 some people, creating a humanitarian disaster.

"There is a lot of fighting going on.
They are using heavy weapons -- rockets and artillery -- as well as small
arms," a witness told Reuters from the road just south of Ndeko.

The U.N. peacekeeping mission also
confirmed the clashes.

"We have had a flash report of heavy
fighting since seven this morning (12 a.m. EST) at Ndeko. We have sent a patrol
out to see what is going on," said spokesman Lt-Col Jean-Paul Dietrich.

Neither the U.N. nor the witness could
confirm who was involved in Sunday's clashes but Nkunda's fighters have
previously clashed with both government soldiers and Rwandan Hutu rebels, known
as the FDLR, in the area.

Nkunda accuses Congolese President Joseph
Kabila of arming and using the FDLR to fight alongside his weak and chaotic
army units. Kabila, meanwhile, accuses neighboring Rwanda of supporting
Nkunda's four year rebellion.

Nkunda initially took up arms saying he was
fighting to defend fellow Tutsis in Congo from attack by the FDLR but, after
marching to the gates of Goma last month, he is now calling for direct
negotiations with the president.

Kabila has so far refused and there are
fears that fighting could degenerate into a conflict similar to Congo's
1998-2003 war, which sucked in six neighboring armies and killed over five
million people, mostly from hunger and disease.